Heating system



(No Model.) I 5 J. G. PEBIGER, Jr.

7 I HEATING SYSTEM:

Patented Jan. 7; 1896.'

NITED STATES I rrrcn.

HEATING SYSTEM.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 552,? 53, dated January 7, 1896. Application filed June 14, 1895. Serial No. 552,785. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, J QHN O. FEBIGER, J12, of New Orleans, parish of Orleans, State of Louisiana, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Heating Systems, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawing.

My invention relates to heating apparatus, particularly to heating apparatus for buildings in which steam or other fluid heating agent is circulated throughout the heating system for the purpose of. imparting heat in different places as required, for example, to the rooms of the building.

The object of my invention is to produce a heating apparatus operating upon what is known in the art as a vacuum system, by which the return pipe or pipes which lead off the water of condensation from the local heaters or radiators are eliminated.

I-Ieretofore apparatus embodying, in connection with local heaters or radiators and a source of steam, a system of steam-supply pipes, a system of return-pipes, and means for creating a suction through the circulatory system (constituted by the steam supply pipes, the local heaters, and the return-pipes) has been employed. No system,however,prior to my invention has been devised for the employment of means of creating a suction through the circulatory portion of an apparatus embodying only one steam-supply pipe.

By my invention I produce an efficient single-pipe heating apparatus operating upon the vacuum system-that is, by means for creating a suction through the circulatory part of the apparatus-without the employment of the return-pipes necessary to the operation of the two-pipe system. By this method the eX- pense of installing the apparatus is largely diminished and the efficiency and economy of operation are materially augmented.

In the accompanying drawing I have illustrated a section of a building equipped with. my apparatus.

Referring to the figures on the drawing, 1 indicates diagrammatically the upright walls of a building, and 2 the transverse partitions thereof.

3 indicates one room, at another, 5 another, 6 another, and 7 another.

8 indicates a main steam-pipe or riser which at one end communicates with a source of steam supply. The steam supply maybe ex haust or live steam and the source of supply may be the exhaust-ports of one or more engines, or it may be, as illustrated in thedrawing, an ordinary boiler 9. I do not limit myself to any particular means of furnishing the supply of steam, and illustrate a boiler only by way of example.

10 indicates the horizontal supply-pipe or riser which, in practice, is located at the top of the building to be heated, and is designed to convey steam from the main riser to branch supply-pipes or risers 11 of the system.

My apparatus may embody one riser or as many risers as are necessary to furnish a supply of steam to all of the compartments in a building to be heated.

Where a plurality of risers are employed their terminals 12 are united in a manifold connection 13, to which means for creating suction in the system maybe attached. For creating such suction, I propose to employ any suitable vacuum-producing mechanism or apparatus. My invention is not restricted to the employment of any special apparatus for that purpose, but I illustrate, for example, a pump, (indicated at 14 in the drawing.) It preferably comprehends a well, chest, reser voir, or receptacle 15, with which the risers communicate, as illustrated, through the manifold 13, and which discharges, as through a pipe 16, into any convenient receptacle. (Not illustrated.)

In practice the well15 receives, together with air, steam, or other gases, the water of condensation and should embody usual provisions for condensing the steam and passing off the water of condensation through the pipe 16, but inasmuch as means for accomplishing this purpose constitute no part of my invention and are well understood in the art I do not deem it necessary to illustrate and describe them in detail.

In connection with a source of steam supply, risers, and vacuum-producin g apparatus, I employ in the several compartments to be heated local heaters 17, which communicate exclusively with the steam-supply pipe, or what I have called, in conformity with the technical terminology, the riser. Such local heaters may consist of any suitable apparatus for multiplying in a given place the heat-radiating surface of the circulatory system, and may consist of coils of pipes arranged vertically or horizontally, as in the ordinary wellknown steam-radiator in which the steam is introduced at the base, or the hot-water radiator in which the heating medium may be introduced at the top.

In compartments 4 and 5 on the drawing hot-water radiators are illustrated, and in the remaining ones ordinary steam-radiators. I lay stress upon the character of radiators merely for the purpose of clearly indicating that I do not propose to confine myself to the employment of any particular kind of apparatus for the local heaters.

In operation, a vacuum being produced in the pipe system by the pump 1 1, a proportionate exhaustion of air will be created in the 10- cal heaters which communicate with the various branches of the pipe system. It is practicable to employ a single connection between the radiator and its riser-as, for example, the valve-controlled pipe 18, as shown in compartment (3; but in large-sized radiators the vacuum necessary to produce circulation of steam throughout the radiator would be so great as to cause the steam to travel too fast through the system and thereby incur wasteful expense. Consequently, exceptfor small radiators, I prefer to employ a local returnpipe 19, which may be controlled by a valve 20 that communicates with the radiator independently of the local supply-pipe 18, and with its riser at a point below the union with the riser of the local supply-pipe 18, or, in other words, at a point nearer to the vacuumproducing apparatus. By this means, when the air in the local heater is partially exhausted, it is conducted through the pipe 19, and free ingress is permitted for the incoming steam or heating medium through the local supply-pipe 18.

The point of application of the pipe 19 to the radiators or local heaters is entirely immaterial. For example, it may be located in the base directly opposite the pipe 18, as shown in compartment I11 compartment 4: it is shown as applied to a water-heater, in which the pipe 8 communicates with the upper part of the radiator and the pipe 19 with the lower part thereof. In the compartment 5 the pipe 19 is shown as connected with the air-vent. I11 compartment 6, as above specified, the local supply-pipe 18 alone is employed. In compartment 7 the pipe 19 is shown connected with the base of the radiator at a point a little above the level of the connection therewith of the pipe 18.

In practice, air being exhausted from the pipe and radiator system, as by the pump 14, the steamis admitted to the main riser 8. It,

being a gas, will seek to fill the vacuum and will permeate and heat every ramification of the apparatus from which the air has been exhausted. Therefore, bysuction alone without the aid of steam-pressure, a building may be thoroughly heated and the latent heat of exhaust-steam may be perfectly utilized.

Let it be noted that the pipe 19, although called a return-pipe, is not so in the sense of the return-pipe employed in the two-pipe system, that it forms, in fact, a double local connection withthe single pipe, and that only one pipe pierces the transverse partitions of a building for each vertical tier of compartments therein.

Each of the supply-pipes or risers 11 is vertically disposed, and each of the pipes 18 and 19 where two are einployed, or the pipe 18, where one is employed, enters t e supply-pipe substantially at right angles to it. Therefore, the connection or'connections between the pipes 18 and 19, or the pipe 18, as the case may be, form a separator for the commingled steam and water of condensation. The water of condensation, through its superior gravity, falls directly through the vertical supply-pipes, while the steam separated from it, being a gas, fills the radiators. In this manner a perfect heating of all the radiators of the system, even of those most remote, is effected. The water of condensation is no where in the system permitted to clog the supply-pipes, but all of the pipes are kept open and free for the passage of the steam.

hat I claim is In heating apparatus, the combination with a system embodying one or more vertically disposed supply pipes, a source of steam supply communicating with one end of the system, and avacuum producing apparatus communicating with the other end thereof, of one or more radiators communicating individually with one of the vertical steam supply pipes exclusively, and substantially at right angles thereto, so as to produce at the juncture or junctures with the vertical pipe a means of separating the water of condensation from the steam, the vapor of water or steam filling the system including the radiators, to supply the vacuum created by the vacuum producing apparatus, and the water of condensation through its superior gravity following the course of each individual vertical pipe, and thereby separating itself from, the steam, substantially as set forth.

In testimony of all which I have hereunto subscribed my name.

JOHN C. l EBIGER, JR. Witnesses JNo. O. FEBIGER, OswALD TILGHMAN. 

